The 5-Minute Resume Rundown You Need
Do you ever just get sick and tired of looking at your resume? You’ve read it over so many times, it doesn’t even feel like you’re seeing words anymore.
I’ve been there. I’ve convinced myself that if I had to tweak one more bullet point, I’d go permanently cross-eyed.
But, here’s the thing: It’s usually when you’re in this state that you’ll miss some facepalm-worthy errors and typos.
I’ve learned this lesson the hard way. So, rather than submit another embarrassingly mistake-ridden document, I figured the smart thing to do would be to develop a simple checklist I could use to give my resume one final check.
Spend just one minute checking over each of the five things on this list, and that last glance at your resume will only take you five minutes! And, because I’m all about making this as painless as possible for you, I’ve pulled those items into a handy checklist you can use.
That’s not so bad, right? And, take it from me, it’s well worth it.
1. Contact Information
I know that this one sounds painfully basic. And, if you’re anything like I used to be, this is a section you just skip over when it comes time to proofread your resume. You just assume it’s all correct.
That was all good—until I got married, changed my last name, and then neglected to update it on my document.
And, that’s not the only thing that can change in this deceivingly straightforward section.
Whether you got a more professional email address for your job hunt, changed your phone number, or moved to a new city, you need to ensure that the seemingly simple information included in the header of your resume is accurate.
2. Verb Tense
You left your most recent position and are now throwing yourself full-force into your job hunt. In the interest of keeping your information updated, you change the end date on that role from “present” to this month—and, that’s where you stopped.
But you also need to update the corresponding bullet points to past tense. Instead of saying something like, “Create newsletters to engage with an audience of more than 200,000 subscribers,” you’d need to change that to “Created newsletters…”
It’s a small change, but an important one nonetheless.
3. Spelling and Grammar
Of course, you don’t want to press “send” on a document that’s littered with all sorts of grammar errors and spelling mistakes. And, believe it or not, spellcheck doesn’t catch everything.
When giving your resume one last look, I recommend reading it from the bottom to the top. This little trick will force your brain to read each and every sentence carefully—rather than skimming over the entire document. (There are more helpful proofreading tips in this article, by the way.)
If you find something that you’re unsure about, do some research or consult with a friend who’s a grammar aficionado.
4. Punctuation
One of your bullet points ends with a period, while the next is just a fragment with no punctuation at all.
No big deal, right? Not so fast. It’s important to be consistent—particularly if your resume touts your “attention to detail.”
Check the endings of all of your phrases and sentences to ensure you’re applying the same punctuation rules across the board (reading from the bottom to the top can help here, too!). And if you see an exclamation point anywhere, it’s best to swap that out for a boring ol’ period.
5. Formatting
Are you ready for my resume horror story? I had finished making all of my last-minute adjustments, saved the document as a PDF without scrolling to the bottom again, and sent it off.
When I finally opened that file again, I was horrified. My final tweaks had screwed up the formatting and pushed one line down to a second page. I had unknowingly submitted a two-page resume—but with only a few words awkwardly dangling on that additional page.
This is why I suggest looking over the formatting last. Scroll through your document (yes, all the way to the bottom!) to make sure that there are no strange spacing issues or places where your bullets have been bumped over. That extra one minute makes all the difference!
There you have it—all of the little things you should be sure to check over one more time.
Ready to get started?
Yes, I know how it feels to not want to look at your resume for another second. But, you don’t want to submit a less-than-polished document simply because your eyes are glazing over at the sight of your perfectly quantified bullet points.
It’s more than worth it to take an extra five minutes to double-check these basics. Use these points and the corresponding checklist to give your resume one final thumbs up, and you’re much more likely to submit a document that’s flawless.